Azure DevTest Labs: Create custom images from a lab VM

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Azure DevTest Labs becomes an even better place for you to prepare and create your VM images (VHDs) today. After you provision and verify a VM in DevTest Labs, you can click the ellipsis (...) for that particular VM and choose Create custom image. The created custom images are stored in the "generatedvhds" blob container of the lab's storage account, and they're available as a VM base for all the lab users to create VMs. In addition, you can choose to use sysprep (or not) for a Windows VM.

Figure 1: Create custom image command

Figure 2: Create custom image blade

Through the Azure portal, you can also do that from an Azure Resource Manager template. Here are the quick-start templates that demonstrate how to create custom images from both Windows and Linux lab VMs:

Please try it today and let us know what you think about it! If you have an idea for how to make it work better for you, submit your feedback (or vote for others) at the Azure DevTest Labs feedback forum. Have a question? Check out answers or ask a new question at the MSDN Community forum.